


Unknown Request

by BurningLeviathans



Series: Piecing Together the Past [1]
Category: Warframe
Genre: Gen, It's literally just a conversation about memories, What tags would even apply to this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-06 11:39:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1106378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurningLeviathans/pseuds/BurningLeviathans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Excalibur talks to Lotus about something he'd mentioned a long time ago: the memories he's retained from before being put in a cryosleep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unknown Request

**Author's Note:**

> I literally have no idea why I wrote this but for one line of dialogue that popped into my head. Also, the entire reason this spawned was because of the fact that I roleplay Hayden Tenno on tumblr and in Warframe, he's credited with being the first Tenno, so my unholy love from Dark Sector immediately infected Warframe and forced this on me.

“You mentioned that you...actually had memories?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“I wouldn't have brought it up had I known the others didn't remember anything.”

“But you remember things from before you went into your cryosleep?”

“...Bits and pieces, yes.”

There was something akin to an almost uncomfortable pause, the concern practically radiating from Lotus, even if her face was mostly hidden, and she was only a hologram before him. Excalibur—no, that wasn't his name. That was his suit's name, but it was the name he'd taken on, purely because the other Tenno had no names to be referred to by, and had taken to being referred to by their Warframes. He'd thought Lotus had forgotten about his mention of memories.  
“Can you tell me some of them? Some of what you remember?”

“It depends on what you want me to talk about. I..remember things from long before the Orokins ever arrived. When it was just the humans. And I remember...bits and pieces from the Old War. Not as much, but...enough to make a difference.” Enough to know things that Lotus probably didn't want him to remember. Or maybe she did.  
“Tell me about whatever you'd like, Tenno.”

“...Hayden.”

“Beg pardon?”

“My name. It's not...Tenno. It's not Excalibur. It's Hayden.”

“Ah...yes, of course. My apologies...Hayden.”

A long silence ensued as the Tenno stared at the wall, his hands shoved into the pockets of the old jacket he wore. It was strange, wearing regular clothing. Clothing he'd managed to find buried deep in the base. Things from a time long past. But they felt comfortable, natural. Just a simple pair of faded jeans, a loose t-shirt, an old heavy cloth jacket, and some tennis shoes. It was more comfortable than wearing the Warframe all the time.

“I remember...when the virus first created...what I am now, I guess. I remember that godforsaken place, Lasria. I remember the excruciating pain it caused me. The fear I felt, wondering when it was going to kill me, or drive me insane, like it had the rest of the people it had infected. But I wasn't alone. The one who'd infected me, she was the same. It's funny that I'm considered the first of the Tenno, when it was really her. She wore the first proto Warframe. But without it, she had no powers. So I guess we were different in that aspect.”

He paused, sighing and looking at his arm, frowning.

“But I wasn't there. I'm not...him. I mean, genetically, I am, but I didn't live any of that. I didn't go through any of that, I just share the memories, the DNA. The Orokin, when they came, years later...he was already aged. The virus had slowed the aging process very minimally, but enough to make a difference so that he was still around when the Orokin showed up. They saw what the virus had done to the planet, but when they encountered him—me—it was an incredulous shock. A human being, having adapted and evolved to this otherwise deadly virus. It had become more than a weapon. They wanted to know why, they wanted to aid him. So, they extracted DNA from him, because he was already near death.”

Lotus hadn't said anything, the image of the hologram flickering just barely as she shifted in her seat, legs crossing. She'd known vaguely about the first, but hearing this side of the story was new.

“They created me to be exactly like him, so that they could know more about the virus. They found the proto Warframe he'd taken, kept, and modified it for me, to enhance my abilities. Of course, their testing changed some of the abilities he'd originally had into the ones I have now, and evolved to give the others the powers they have. But I was as close a replica as they got.

Then the others...came out of the Void. The Orokin found them, took them in, practically. Gave them Warframes as well, saw them—us, as a ray of hope. But...they knew, something that we didn't. They knew something that no one else did, not the Grineer or Corpus.”

At that, he stopped, hesitating and lowering his head, a hand running through his hair. Lotus shifted in her seat a bit, sitting forward and steepling her fingers. “What is it? What did they know?”

He glanced back at her, eyes falling to the ground before he turned back to looking at the wall. “I guess..they were going to be corrupted at some point. I don't really know. That's all I can guess, really. But they...asked us to do something for them. Just one last thing, as payment for the Warframes they gifted us with.”

“And what was that?”

“To destroy them.”

The silence in the air was heavy, weighing on Hayden twice as much as it did the hologram. He swallowed thickly, throat constricting before he sighed. “After that, it gets hazy. All I remember is...bits and pieces, fragments of battles. I don't remember going into the cryosleep.”

“I see...well, thank you for sharing this with me.”

He turned slightly, before shifting so that he was facing the hologram fully, “It's not like I could share it with the others. Even if we're all Tenno, even if we're all connected, we're not. I'm not, at least. They all have that in common, they have each other, have that link to the Void. I'm...left in the dark. About everything.” The last two sentences came out weak, almost heart-wrenched, and he immediately fell silent, looking away.

“I'm sorry, Hayden. If there were something I could do to alleviate that pain, I would. But for now, you must continue as you are, and just do what you can. I'll see you in the morning.”

The hologram vanished, leaving the Tenno to his mostly-empty room, and his thoughts.


End file.
